BONSAI LABS

You turn the light on and look over the Playground.
It’s been a day or so since you built it, since you’re pretty nervous about using it.
It’s about time you start, though.


You have:

• A Common Clovette
  
• A few other Clovettes and other saplings, almost done growing
  
• A LOT of different seeds in stasis
  
• Red, Green, Blue, and Gold extracts
  
• A single assistant (currently out on an errand)
  
• Enough syringes and cotton swabs to last a lifetime… or maybe just a month of nonstop experiments. You won’t need more for a while.
  

… The first thing you need to do is place the Clovette in the Playground. But you’re still nervous, and you’re not sure what tests you want to start with.

~~~

start with the fun experiment of: can you grow the dang thing without killing it

Place the Clovette in the crook of the pond

how do the colored extracts taste

Hum a little tune to yourself while you plant it and prepare the red solution. 'Little Red Clovette'

Create Yggdrasil.

After you place the Clovette, call up your assistant. How're they doing?

Do an inventory check on everything in more detail.

>Place clovette and inject it with red, then gold to see if you get two colored clovette, or if they just mix into orange

>plant one of those boys as a control sample, that’s how you science!

Place the Clovette in the crook of the pond

>plant one of those boys as a control sample, that’s how you science!

>

>Place clovette and inject it with red, then gold to see if you get two colored clovette, or if they just mix into orange

>this but with a seed

id like to second bigro's suggestion

start with the fun experiment of: can you grow the dang thing without killing it

Oh, the first Clovette is already grown and ready for testing. You suppose that’s a good sign already; you never really considered yourself much of a gardener.

Place the Clovette in the crook of the pond

You believe you watered the Clovette earlier, but it wouldn’t hurt to gently introduce it to the Playground’s water supply.



Shortly after being placed in the shallow water, the Clovette walks to the shore of the pond and sits down to dry.

It seems the Playground is not an alarming environment to this creature.

how do the colored extracts taste

You assume they taste strongly of the materials you procured the extracts from - the earthy taste of Breadcap, the sweet-sour taste of Denmelon, the cloying sweet taste of Hornpansy, and the numbingly-bitter taste of Prickleberry - but you really, really don’t want to eat these extracts. You didn’t make these for culinary use.

Do an inventory check on everything in more detail.

Okay, more accurately:

• 5 doses each of Red, Green, Blue, and Gold extracts.
  
• A couple hundred syringes for internal extract application, and a higher count of cotton swabs for external application.
  
• A fridge full of imported plants - namely, the ones mentioned above
  
• An extraction machine, for use with those imported plants
  
• A whole lot of extra Clovettes and other creatures, growing but not yet matured, though two are almost ready.

You decide to try applying a single dose of Red extract to the Clovette, with a swab. The Clovette wiggles away, moving to a different side of the Playground.

You sit back and jot down some notes, and after about 15 minutes, you notice…



The Clovette has wilted a bit. This is what you expected of the Red extract, though it took effect alarmingly quickly.

You take note of the effect in your notebook.

You hear a brief alarm buzz elsewhere in your lab, notifying you that some of your saplings have matured and are ready for testing. You can now add another Clovette, or a Flysnap, to the Playground.

>I choose you, flyperson!

>introduce clovette friend
>try injecting the wilted one with green extract to see if it grows better

>apply kisses to wilty clovette to improve condition. Hypothesis: kisses make everything better.

>Put in a second clovette and vow to do nothing to it; it shall now and forever be the control group and must remain pure.

Please Apply Kisses to Clovette

>Put in a second clovette and vow to do nothing to it; it shall now and forever be the control group and must remain pure.

yes

Shoo Clovette back towards the pond

>Shoo clovette back the pond
>Place flysnap

Deploy the Flysnap.

Put the Clovette in the water and give it green extract

>apply kisses to wilty clovette to improve condition. Hypothesis: kisses make everything better.

>introduce clovette friend
>try injecting the wilted one with green extract to see if it grows better

You feel a little bad for wilting this Clovette so quickly. You give it a careful little smooch (on the side you didn’t apply the extract to) to make it feel better.

It seems to get a little fussy.

… okay, now that you’ve tried that, you’re going to try something you think will actually make it less sick. You’re pretty sure Green extract will reverse wilting and encourage growth, so you apply a drop to a cotton swab and rub it onto the Clovette.

While you wait for the extract to take effect, you decide to get the other sprouts from the garden and introduce them to the Playground.

After another 15 minutes…




You now have two moderately-healthy Clovettes, and one Flysnap.
You decide to keep the second one free of tests, as a control case, so you add a small band to its back leg.

You also decide, next time you use an extract, you’ll dilute it. Partly so you won’t go through your extracts so fast, but also to see if it will make the effects less drastic. Now, rather than 4-5 extracts of each color, you have 8-10.

Now… the next two extracts you need to see the effects of are the Blue and Gold extracts. It’s not guaranteed, but you expect the Blue extract to make a Clovette develop claws? Or horns? And the Gold extract would, uh… make it... happy? The effects of Gold mutations have always been a bit unclear to you, but you heard it seems to have something to do with hunger.

You also think you should probably leave the first Clovette alone for a while - it looks like it’s shaking a little.

>Let's apply a dose of Blue extract to the Flysnap.
I don't trust the flysnap to not try and eat a clovette with a gold dose, one clovette is currently shaking, and the other is our clovette control. So, flysnap dosing it is.